New Valley Hills

After 5 days at home I can wear shoes again. There was no way that heel blister was going to heal on the trail. Next week I head out for 3 days hiking with friends on Dartmoor, which will be nice to be back in the saddle after enforced RnR.

Doing lots of soul searching. For the sake of catching a taxi on day 7 or 8 I reckon continuation was possible, for the sake of missing one day. While I’ve learnt I can power through physical pain in very hot humid weather, what I’ve also learnt is the ramifications of doing so – not finishing the hike.

Looking back through my notes and the guidebook, I realise mistakes had been made during planning. For at least two days I’d under-estimated the mileage by a third, meaning several 24 k days (easy) turned into 32 k days (hard). I’ve previously walked a 42 k in a day, but not done these distances back to back.
24 k a day repeatedly seems about my comfort level. More can be done, up to 40k ish, but a rest day is neeed afterwards.
I didn’t factor in rest days, of which I left out two. So keen to finish I made mistakes early on.

I can walk on super hot days. When I knew it was going to be 29C next day I went to bed early, packed ready for a quick start, up at 4am, walking by 5am. Forgoing hot coffee and breakfast for cold coffee and snacks on the go, I did 30k before 1pm, meaning I could rest during the very hot afternoon.

One day my phone ran out of battery. I need to remember at start of day to write on paper that’s night accomodation details so I can ask a passerby if I get stuck. ‘Excuse me, can you tell me how to get to my AirBnB?” doesn’t get you very far. 🙂 A postcode would’ve helped.

I’ve managed to rearrange dates or get refunds for all bar one of the paid-for accommodation in London. Once autumn is here and much of the London tourists have left I’ll go back and do the remaining section through to Grain. Thankfully the London days are shorter.
Also to look forward to are my first home my parents brought me up in. I have no recollection of it nor have I ever visited. Also Dad’s ancestral home where the jeweller lived. Teddington and Putney here we come.

Anyway, this was a shakedown trail, and it has taught me some useful lessons.

The Marlow shoe shop did not measure feet size, so I need to get them measured to see if the width change was just from the heat or they’ve actually spread more permanently. I’ve heard this is a thing, but was not expecting it after a couple of hundred klicks.